Enhancing performance of dye-sensitized solar cells by TiCl4 treatment at different concentrations

Abstract

In this work, a TiO2 passivating layer was deposited on FTO glass from TiCl4 aqueous solution, and the film with TiCl4 treatment was compared with the untreated film. In order to prevent the charge recombination at the interface between the transparent-conducting oxide (TCO) substrate and the electrolyte, we employed TiCl4 treatment in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The crystalline structure was adjusted by various TiCl4 concentrations and dipping times: 20–150 mM, and 30–120 min, respectively. The dye-sensitized solar cell using the TiO2 passivating layer was measured and found to have the maximum conversion efficiency of 3.82% owing to the effective prevention of the electron recombination. As a result, the DSSCs with the passivating layer showed better photovoltaic performance than the cells made purely of TiO2 nanoparticles. In this paper, we describe the effect of TiCl4 treatment on the TiO2 layer.